I have, by now, got rather fond of Mr. James Bond. I like most of the things about him, with the exception of his rather deplorable taste in firearms. In particular, I dislike a man who comes into contact with all sorts of formidable people using a .25 Beretta. This sort of gun is really a lady's gun, and not a really nice lady at that. If Mr. Bond has to use a light gun he would be better off with a .22 rim fire; the lead bullet would cause more shocking effect than the jacketed type of the .25.Flemming seems not to have been particularly knowledgeable about firearms, and was delighted with his correspondent's lengthy letter of advice. So much so, in fact, that he wrote a quite gracious reply:
I really am most grateful for your splendid letter of May 23rd.The next novel (Dr. No) found Bond rearmed by a certain Maj. Boothroyd. The name of Flemming's correspondent? Geoffrey Boothroyd.
You have entirely convinced me and I propose, perhaps not in the next volume of James Bond's memoirs but, in the subsequent one, to change his weapons in accordance with your instructions.
Since I am not in the habit of stealing another man's expertise, I shall ask you in due course to accept remuneration for your most valuable technical aid.
Incidentally, can you suggest where I can see a .38 Airweight in London. Who would have one?
While it's unclear whether Flemming was able to pull strings with the studios to get Boothroyd hired as a technical adviser to the films, Mr. Boothroyd was immortalized by the BBC in this video, shot during the filming of Goldfinger. Mr. Boothroyd related the story in his own words.
AFAIK, the only Bond film where he packs a revolver is Live And Let Die. It's a .44 Magnum, which seems a bit bulky for spy work. But the PPK is a fine pistol.
Via Metafilter, where the comments are pretty interesting. Boothroyd's Wikipedia entry is pretty interesting, too. Seems he was quite a prolific firearms writer. And the comments at Letters of Note are pretty interesting, especially this one:
Sing it, brother. Or Waterman fountain pen ...
- I wish adults still interacted like this. From here on out, I am going to type all my correspondence on an Underwood 5.
Oh my goodness... I have recently purchased Mr. Geoffrey Boothroyd's book, "The Handgun" (1970) and been reading it - it is quite exhaustively thorough.
ReplyDeleteGood-on old Geoffrey!
DirtCrashr, I was wondering when I wrote that post how many readers had his books. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm partial to either an Eversharp Skyline (circa 1944), a Sheaffer Balance (circa 1942), or a Parker Vacumatic (circa 1943).
ReplyDeleteRemember: MacArthur used a Parker Orange Senior Duofold (affectionately known as the "Big Red") to sign the surrender of the Japanese in '45. Now, THERE'S a pen that's mightier than the sword!!!
Famous Waterman pens? Don't know of many...
In the video, neither Sean Connery nor Geoffrey Boothroyd have what likely would have been the correct Beretta. Nice to see Boothroyd with the Burns-Martin holster though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and funny story about Mr. Boothroyd.
ReplyDelete"AFAIK, the only Bond film where he packs a revolver is Live And Let Die."
I don't recall the film Bond ever carrying a revolver as his weapon-of-choice ... then again, I actively avoid most of the Roger Moore Bond films, as they're campy and stupid next to the Connery Bond, or even some of the recent Bonds.
The Bond of the books, by Ian Fleming and other lesser talents, almost always routinely carried a small, easily-concealed semiauto -- Beretta .25, Walther PPK 7.65mm, then 9mms of various types in the Gardner books. However, after some thought I did recall him carrying a revolver at least once: in the novel Doctor No, he carried a Smith and Wesson .38, and found that it wasn't much good against a flamethrower.
There's a Fleming short story which has Bond armed with a '.45 Colt revolver' of some unspecified sort.
ReplyDeleteCool, but alarming to see the lack of safety awareness - no eye or ear protection, muzzling and shooting at the camera (which was unlikely to be a modern video camera with a remote function) and to top it off the mini shooting range inside his own house!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Geoffrey Boothroyd faired when the Crown decided that all of those toys he was playing with had to be turned in. GB... It ain't what it used to be.
ReplyDelete